{"id":57313,"date":"2025-08-15T20:52:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57313"},"modified":"2025-08-15T20:52:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:52:50","slug":"polk-school-board-wants-you-to-pay-a-1-mill-tax-proposal-for-teacher-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/15\/polk-school-board-wants-you-to-pay-a-1-mill-tax-proposal-for-teacher-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk School Board wants you to pay a 1 Mill Tax Proposal for Teacher Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After months of planning, the Polk County School Board has disclosed the referendum it wants to put before voters in the next general election.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"89b2f0\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"273\" height=\"184\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-1-3.webp?resize=273%2C184&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57314 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #89b2f0; width:561px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Board members voted 6-0 on Tuesday to approve&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/go.boarddocs.com\/fl\/polk\/Board.nsf\/files\/DKFP7L633F7D\/$file\/Ballot%20Language%20REV%208-11-25.pdf\">tentative ballot language<\/a>&nbsp;that would:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Levy an additional 1 mill in ad valorem property taxes for four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allocate 80% of the revenue to salary increases for teachers and school-based staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allocate the other 20% to school programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Share proceeds with charter schools, as required by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Create a 14-member citizens\u2019 oversight committee to monitor spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">School board members plan to vote on the final wording immediately following the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They will then send the ballot language to the Polk County Commission for approval. If the commissioners agree, it will appear on the Nov. 3, 2026, election ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Property taxes are calculated using a millage rate. One mill \u2014 0.1 cents or one thousandth of a dollar \u2014 translates to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;average market value&nbsp;of a home in Polk County is $284,419. Assuming the standard $50,000 homestead exemption, the average taxable value becomes $234,419.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The school district currently levies a property tax of 3.79 mills for operating expenses and 1.5 mills for capital improvement, making a combined total of 5.29 mills. That\u2019s about $1,240 per year for the average homeowner in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another mill for pay raises would add $234 a year from 2027 through 2031, bringing the total to $1,474 annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">District staff estimates that a 1-mill increase would generate&nbsp;$72 million to $80 million a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Details of the 80% set aside for salaries would have to be negotiated with the unions that represent educators and support staff. The other 20% earmarked for programming would include funding for fine arts, school safety, workforce and career education programs, and full-day instead of half-day pre-kindergarten programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Public hearing about millage proposal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When:\u00a0Sept. 9 during the board meeting that begins at 5 p.m.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where:\u00a0School Board auditorium, 1915 South Floral Ave., Bartow, FL 33830<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To contact your school board member:&nbsp;Visit the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polkschoolsfl.com\/quicklinks\/boardmembers\">school board\u2019s web page<\/a>, which includes a map of the districts and each member\u2019s phone number and email address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After months of planning, the Polk County School Board has disclosed the referendum it wants to put before voters in the next general election.&nbsp; Board members voted 6-0 on Tuesday&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"26","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMy53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yNzMlMkMxODQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIFNjaG9vbCBCb2FyZCB3YW50cyB5b3UgdG8gcGF5IGEgMSBNaWxsIFRheCBQcm9wb3NhbCBmb3IgVGVhY2hlciBQYXkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.8QK9u620_mLIeW5p56iomqX9o19VPlwOknf9MRXazsAMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57314,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-1-3.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[11996],"class_list":["post-57313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-polk-school-board-wants-you-to-pay-a-1-mill-tax-proposal-for-teacher-pay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57315,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57313\/revisions\/57315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}